US Predators targeted the al Qaeda-linked Haqqani Network in Pakistan’s Taliban-controlled tribal agency of Kurram today, killing 11 enemy fighters. The strike hit in an area run by a Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan commander who supports the Haqqani Network.

The remotely-piloted Predators or the more deadly Reapers fired four missiles at two compounds and a vehicle in the Khardand area of Kurram.

“Eleven militants were killed,” a local Pakistani intelligence official said, according to Dawn. “Nine of them were Afghans and believed to be linked to the Haqqani group.”

No senior Haqqani Network, Taliban, or al Qaeda leaders have been reported killed in the strike.

Today’s strike took place in an area run by a Taliban commander known as Fazal Saeed, who is said to be “closely linked to the Haqqani Network,” Dawn reported.

Fazal’s full name is Fazal Saeed Utezai [see LWJ report, The Pakistani Taliban’s top leaders]. He is a deputy to Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan leader Hakeemullah Mehsud, leads Taliban fighters in the Kurram tribal agency, and operates training camps used to train fighters to carry out attacks in Afghanistan. His forces have been behind some of the worst sectarian violence against the Shia tribes. In 2009, Fazal was one of 11 Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan leaders placed on a list of wanted terrorists by the Pakistani government. Fazal has a $61,500 bounty on his head.

The US targeted one of Fazal’s camps in Kurram in a March 12, 2009 Predator strike. Fourteen terrorists, including “foreigners,” were killed in the attack on a compound and training camp in the Barjo region. Pakistani officials use the term “foreigner” to describe al Qaeda members and other terrorists hailing from outside Pakistan.

The US has carried out two other strikes in Kurram. On Aug. 27, 2010, Predators attacked two vehicles in the Shahidano area and killed four terrorists. And on Feb. 16, 2009, the Predators killed 30 Taliban and al Qaeda fighters in airstrikes that targeted a training camp in the Sarpal area of Kurram. The Sarpal camp was run by Bahram Khan Kochi, a commander of Taliban forces operating inside Afghanistan.

Kurram has become a safe haven for the Haqqani Network since the terror group, backed by the Pakistani military, brokered a peace deal between the besieged Shia tribes and the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan. The Haqqanis want to use Kurram as an alternate route into Afghanistan. Siraj Haqqani, the operational commander of the Haqqani Network who is a top al Qaeda and Taliban leader, and other Haqqani Network commanders have sought shelter in Kurram to avoid the US Predator strikes.

The Predator strikes, by the numbers

So far this year, the US has carried out 38 strikes in Pakistan, and is well off the pace of the 117 attacks that took place in 2010. In 2010, the US more than doubled the number of strikes that had occurred in 2009; by late August 2010, the US had exceeded 2009’s strike total of 53 with a strike in Kurram. In 2008, the US carried out a total of 36 strikes inside Pakistan. [For up-to-date charts on the US air campaign in Pakistan, see LWJ Special Report, Charting the data for US airstrikes in Pakistan, 2004 – 2011.]

In 2010 the strikes were concentrated almost exclusively in North Waziristan, where the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban, the Haqqani Network, al Qaeda, and a host of Pakistani and Central and South Asian terror groups are based. All but 13 of the 117 strikes took place North Waziristan. Of the 13 strikes occurring outside of North Waziristan in 2010, seven were executed in South Waziristan, five were in Khyber, and one was in Kurram. This year, an increasing number of strikes are taking place in South Waziristan. So far in 2011, 25 of the 38 strikes have taken place in North Waziristan, 12 strikes have occurred in South Waziristan, and one more took place in Kurram.

Since Sept. 1, 2010, the US has conducted 99 strikes in Pakistan’s tribal agencies. The bulk of those attacks have aimed at the terror groups in North Waziristan, with 81 strikes in the tribal agency. Many of the strikes have targeted cells run by the Islamic Jihad Group, which have been plotting to conduct Mumbai-styled terror assaults in Europe. A Sept. 8 strike killed an IJG commander known as Qureshi, who specialized in training Germans to conduct attacks in their home country.

The US campaign in northwestern Pakistan has targeted top al Qaeda leaders, al Qaeda’s external operations network, and Taliban leaders and fighters who threaten both the Afghan and Pakistani states as well as support al Qaeda’s external operations. The campaign has been largely successful in focusing on terrorist targets and avoiding civilian casualties, as recently affirmed by the Pakistani military.

7 Comments

Finally, these evil scum are getting the meaning of true justice and the meaning of American resilience. Until the main al-Qa’ida and Taliban leadership are killed, which they are rapidly being done, we will dogmatically chase them to the ends of the Earth, and unlike their pronouncements, they are afraid of American special forces killing them.

Vienna,20-06-2011
I would expect increased intensified drone strikes using not
theft but deception technology, if there is one.If there is none
it is time the devise is developed.
-Kulamarva Balakrishna

“Fazal has a $61,500 bounty on his head.”
Life comes pretty cheap in Pakistan. Sure it isn’t $61,499.99?
If this is what a top-11 terrorist is worth, the US is grossly overpaying the Pak Army. Time to re-evaluate.

I think the U.S. to hasten the demise of fascist -Islamist Talibans should increase its drone strikes atleast 5 fold…also use airstriles in N.Wazirstan..these bullying and racist a-holes should be shown no mercy and completely wiped out…To hell with their Pakistani suppoters. ..Re garding negotiations with Talibans its stupid and counterproductive. U.S forces should go all out to destroy them and kill them. When a majority of Talibans have been killed, the rest will beg the U.S. to spare them and will agree to a peaceful Afghanistan. Thats the reality. Unfortunately there are no shortcuts to non-fighting

//timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/pakistan/Drone-strikes-on-Haqqanis-men-kill-11/articleshow/8930769.cms
From the linked story above:
“The drones initially targeted a vehicle in which suspected militants were travelling. When some more rebels gathered in the area to carry out a rescue operation, the drones struck again.”
I don’t want to gloat, but it serves them right to get the same treatment that they serve out to others with their suicide strikes. First they set off an initial blast to attract bystanders and rescue personnel, then they set off another one to cause maximum death and destruction. Thank you, drone operators, for serving them justice, ice cold.

Pound them and pound them again unil their will to fight is broken and they all go home to their postterrorist awaiting lives.
Thank you Long Warl Journal for keeping us observers up to date with the latest news on the front.

An unexcpected result of political fallout from the BinLaden raid has been the Pak army and the ISI-S det. falling behind in the dialogue, and the emerging pattern of failure to match their words with actions. The net effect of this has amounted to a tacit justification to ramp up the drone strikes, expand the search radius, and to leave Pak out in the cold on our intel. No doubt about it, the more we leave them out, the better. Their duplicity is obscene. I see things moving upscale slowly at first, but at an ever increasing pitch – we now have more hard intel than ever before on who to hit, and their patterns are quite helpful. This is maybe the first time since ’04 when we feel no compunction at the complaints from the ISI-S & C. Not afraid to be very deadly now….so here we go.